Rewarding Work:The Data on an $11 Minimum Wage

June 19, 2014

Facts-6-17-14

Seeking
to expand economic opportunity for working people in the
Commonwealth, the legislature has voted to increase the
state’s minimum wage to $11 an hour by 2017. This
will raise the wages of about 600,000 people who work hard, at low
wages, to support themselves and their families. In addition
to helping these families and individuals, a minimum wage increase can
also have positive effects on the overall economy, as higher wages
allow workers to spend more at local businesses. When fully
phased in, the increase will raise annual wages for affected workers by
approximately $1.1 billion.

Who are the 600,000 people whose wages will increase?

Together they are
one-in-five wage earners in the Commonwealth.

Over 85 percent are twenty years old or older – and younger
workers who are helped are often working to pay for college or to help
their family with basic expenses.

57 percent are women.

140,000 of the affected
workers are
parents – and 236,000 children live in households that will
be helped by the increase.

This legislation would raise the wage in three steps: to $9/hour in
2015, to $10/hour in 2016, and to $11/hour in 2017 (on January 1st of
each year). These wage increases would not be indexed to inflation.
(For more discussion of indexing, see MassBudget’s factsheet
Value
of Minimum Wage Is Eroded Quickly by Inflation.)
In
addition, the “tipped minimum wage" - which allows employers
to pay tipped workers a lower wage (as long as tips bring the workers'
pay up to the regular minimum wage) - would rise slightly, from the
current rate of $2.63/hour to a final rate of $3.75/hour, also by 2017.
(For more discussion of the tipped minimum, see MassBudget’s
factsheet The
Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers.)

At $11 an hour in 2017, Massachusetts would have the highest state
minimum wage in the nation – unless other states raise their
wage above that level during the next three years.

Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center

15 Court Square, Suite 700 | Boston, MA 02108 | (617) 426-1228

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